Almost 100 more are injured in the blast in one of the most tightly secured areas in the city. The strike on the Afghan capital comes five days before nationwide elections. McCain Administration "undeterred."

(Loosely based on a report from Kabul, Afghanistan, that appeared in today's Los Angeles Times)

At the summer White House in Sedona, Arizona, U.S. President John McCain expressed regret over the loss of Afghan lives. "We knew there'd be setbacks, but this doesn't mean our plan isn't working," he told reporters. "The Afghans are showing enormous courage in the face of threats and intimidations by the Taliban. We expect the elections to be a rousing affirmation of democracy."

In Washington, organizers of the "Stop McCain's War" march next month also expressed regret about the loss of life in Kabul. "The senseless slaughter will continue," a spokesman said, "until American troops come home." The hrefdemonstration, to take place on Sept. 21, annually designated as the International Day of Peace by the United Nations, is supported by a coalition of labor, peace and human rights groups. A number of Democratic leaders, including U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who labeled the war "a dangerous distraction," have promised to participate. Organizers say two million people will gather on the Washington Mall to hear speeches and protest the war.

In Kabul, NATO's International Security Assistance force said in a statement that several soldiers had been hurt in the bombing, but did not give their nationalities or say where they were stationed at the time. However, the gate is usually guarded by a small contingent of Macedonian soldiers who are relatively exposed to the street.

Police initially said the vehicle into which the explosives were packed was a sport-utility vehicle of the type commonly driven by civilian contractors who frequent the base, but determined later the bomb was in a Toyota station wagon, and the SUV had been close by.

The main part of the base, which is headquarters to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of all U.S. and Western forces in Afghanistan, lies a considerable distance from the front gate, beyond more concrete barriers and a maze-like pedestrian entrance. Aides did not immediately confirm whether the general was on base at the time.

As with many such attacks on official installations, the brunt of the explosion was taken by Afghan civilians: employees at the nearby Ministry of Transportation, who were just beginning their workweek, and shopkeepers in a row of nearby small establishments. A small group of Afghan street boys usually congregates at the gate, begging for change from foreigners coming and going on foot.

"I always felt safe here, with so much security -- checkpoints everywhere," said 25-year-old Ahmad, who works at the offices of a charity about 100 yards from the blast site and did not want his last name used. He and other workers were eating breakfast when the blast blew out the heavy plate-glass windows.

Afghan officials for weeks have been urging people to defy Taliban threats and go to the polls on Thursday. President Hamid Karzai told supporters at a rally last week they should vote "even if a hundred bombs explode."

The McCain administration and the Western military are heavily invested in a successful vote, which they hope will enhance the legitimacy of the central government and bolster efforts to increase Afghanistan's self-sufficiency in security matters, allowing for an eventual exit of foreign forces. President McCain has called the balloting the most important event of the year in Afghanistan.

Today's blast could be heard across much of the capital. It scorched walls, downed tree limbs, gutted several parked cars, shattered windows hundreds of yards away and sent a plume of smoke billowing into the air.

Frightened civilians, some bleeding from their wounds, fled on foot. Passersby stopped cars and even motorcycles to ferry wounded people to hospitals.

International forces swiftly set up a cordon of armored vehicles manned by British, French and other troops, and Afghan police waved traffic away.

A Taliban spokesman made a call to the Associated Press claiming responsibility for the attack, but initially said -- mistakenly -- that the bomber was on foot. Suspicion also fell on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group that is believed to have carried out some of the most sophisticated and lethal attacks in and around the capital.

The quotes attributed to John McCain, Ike Skelton and Jim Langevin are either made up or mis-attributed; the quote from Sen. Obama is accurate but wildly out of context, the context being his campaign promise that he would be "taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Although there was a quick response from the imaginary McCain White House, 18 hours after the event it does not appear that the real administration wants to draw further attention to the setback by making a comment.

Apparently there were 1,100 pounds of explosives, not the 600 pounds of the earliest reports. So much for security.

“How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” John Kerry famously asked. Will the Democrats, who know better, stop funding these adventures or will they continue to remain quiet about this mistake? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in the Middle East? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for oil?]